Accused Season 1 Episode 3 Review: Danny’s Story
On Accused Season 1 Episode 3, “Danny’s Story,” the show takes its first giant leap away from the heartfelt and lands somewhere in the deep sigh zone.
With its first two episodes, Accused has made a point of becoming a show that viewers should take seriously, dealing with issues affecting many people, specifically Americans.
Though the acting and the story itself are set up to be something good, “Danny’s Story” just doesn’t make it all the way there.
Reid Miller leads this cast as Danny, a boy whose mother has just died, and his mother’s nurse has started a relationship with his father.
The concept itself — a nurse planning to hasten a sick woman’s death to join the family and ultimately kill the husband — isn’t unheard of, nor is it in short supply.
Accused, however, could’ve taken this in a different direction by having the child’s concerns be heard and acted upon. Instead, it follows how the story goes time and time again and waits until the last minute for a “gotcha!” moment.
As the show has placed itself on its own pedestal, tackling intense and sometimes taboo topics, “Danny’s Story” feels like a cheap laugh in the middle.
The real gotcha moment would be if Danny was heard and listened to, his concerns heeded and taken into account, and his father was open to discussing more than surface-level details about his relationship with Alison (Bilson).
If Accused wanted to keep the dramatics, it could toss in proof that Alison is trying to poison him or his father, thus leading to Alison’s arrest rather than her ultimate stabbing.
The show instead takes a goofy turn in placing Danny in a mental hospital and giving us no explanation as to why he’s put there.
There is no resolution on whether or not it’s really schizophrenia, which often doesn’t develop until their early 20s, or if there is something else going on that makes him unfit to stand trial.
While Accused Season 1 Episode 1, “Scott’s Story,” gives a voice, albeit a violent one, to teenage boys that are struggling, “Danny’s Story” rips it away and doesn’t explain half of the episode’s buildup.
Elsewhere, in a year’s span, Alison is somehow able to enter into a family where a mother dies, a dog is killed, a child is institutionalized, and a father dies, and police are not investigating her.
Come on, y’all.
“Danny’s Story” could be a story of triumph in adults finally listening to children, or why grief counseling and mental health support should be more accessible to people, especially children. Instead, it turns into an unlikely hero vs. villain story.
Accused has the potential to be a show where intense and shocking subjects are discussed and dissected, but if they continue in the vein of “Danny’s Story,” the show will eat itself alive.
Stray Thoughts:
- Where can I find a rich man who will wife me up and then insists I not work? I won’t kill him, I promise.
- As a child, going to the ER and coming out with the results of possible mental illness can be extremely difficult. I wish that had been more focused on.
- Logically, you’re not supposed to stab people, but as this is fictional, I commend Danny for stabbing Alison. King!
What did you think of this episode of Accused? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Critic Rating:
User Rating:
Accused airs Tuesday at 9/8c on FOX.
Follow us on Twitter and on 
Instagram!
Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!
Representation on TV: January Highlights Include ‘The 1619 Project’ and ‘All American’
Laura Wanberg
Laura is a homebody who loves everything about TV. Some of her favorite shows include Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Parks and Recreation, and The Morning Show. With her ever-growing list of new shows to watch and books to read, her favorite thing to do is to cuddle up with her cat and get lost in someone else's world.
11 comments
I agree, I ended up here wondering if more people were like “what the heck was that?”
What if Danny really was crazy (he failed the psych evaluation) and he was just imagining Allison saying all of those things to him! Father is alive and well, etc….
3rd episode was so wrong the bad person got away with the crime. Worst episode.
It seemed like everyone turned against the kid. And, seriously, why not let him have the food tested? Instead everyone tells him he’s crazy??? It’s like we haven’t learned ANYTHING about mental health/illness or neurodivergence since the 50s, the era out of which this episode seemed to time travel.
Such a disappointment and a letdown, without even an *unpleasant* resolution. And made worse by the fact that the show is created by the Homeland guys, who actually dealt with mental illness in that show more responsibly.
I liked the first two eps, but if it continues to be as bad as this, I won’t be watching anymore.
Absolutely the worst ending of any show I’ve seen in a very long time — if I could have given the show a rating of “0” I would have.
I agree with everyone here — the show went the wrong way — it would have been so satisfying to see the “nurse” get her just dues; a prison cell.
Pretty sure he was imagining the entire last scene. The kid was not exactly a reliable narrator.
Absolutely agree! The first two episodes were good and this was so ridiculous. Someone screwed up and wrote the wrong ending to the script. The nurse needed to pay for her crimes.
I don’t need to watch TV and waste 44 mins of my life to see the bad people win!! I live in Los Angeles, and I see it every day. one of the worst tv episode ending I have ever seen. I loved the first two episodes, but as someone said, if it keeps going like this, the show will lose me..and others. A very simple step that should have been taken, test the damn food.
While not every episode has to end in a happy/sad ending (the show advertises the question to be lingering throughout the episode whether the person is guilty or not, obviously the main character of the episode could in the end be guilty and sad ending), it’s supposed to be steeped and based in realism; not throw some cheap horror twist at the end — it’s not like these things don’t happen in real life, but come on, they go through the whole episode showing and expanding Danny devolving into his psychiatric condition just to turn it around in the last second in a cheap attempt to be clever. Yes, let’s undo, in some cheap way, all the investment in time and attachment the viewer had watching Danny the whole episode. And he’s hardly “accused”, he definitely guilty of stabbing her and is obviously mentally ill (maybe not to the point of full schizophrenia, but you don’t have to have that psychiatric illness to be dangerously paranoid or deluded).
I wasn’t totally invested in the series watching the first 2 episodes as I didn’t really connect with them, but I was very interested in the premise and expected the show to simply be ramping up; but if they aren’t going to be grounded in (better) realism or be against cheap ploys, I’m out.
Waste of time…..disappointing
In a word, awful. I agree with everyone else’s comments. There were too many things to ignore not to even consider Danny might be right, and it wouldn’t have hurt a thing to just look into one of his accusations. If Danny wasn’t really crazy, he certainly is now. What a major letdown!
Comments are closed.